THROWBACK NEWS
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Fifty years ago, the grand opening of Bike’s Burger Bar was held at its location of Highway 34 and South Walnut Street in Creston. More THROWBACK NEWS on page 2A.
The Southwestern men’s basketball team defeated Iowa Central 70-58 Wednesday to clinch at least a share of the ICCAC Division II title. More on 8A.
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24-hour Casey’s to be built on County Sumner Avenue in Creston
county supervisors
tax asking remains relatively constant
By KELSEY HAUGEN CNA staff reporter khaugen@crestonnews.com
A larger, 24-hour Casey’s General Store is scheduled to be built on the southwest corner at the intersection of North Sumner Avenue and West Townline Street in Creston. The new store will be at least 4,200 square feet, according to Bill Walljasper, chief financial officer at the Casey’s corporate office. “It’ll be a goods i z e d building – similar to the new (Casey’s) Kruse store in Greenfield,” said Kevin Kruse, Creston public works director. The 24-hour location will have six gasoline pump islands and one diesel island. Inside, there will be some added amenities now found in newer Casey’s stores. “The grocery items will be relatively similar, but from a prepared food standpoint, there will be pizza and donuts, madeto-order sub sandwiches, self-serve ice cream, a sitdown area for customers and walk-in beer cooler,” Walljasper said. “Once we’re able to get a beer cave in, it’ll allow us to sell some more craft beers, which seem to resonate with our customers.” While Kruse said he has heard Casey’s may eliminate one or two of the other Casey’s locations in Creston because of the new store, nothing yet has been officially released. “My hunch is that it will replace one or more of the existing stores,” Walljas-
By BAILEY POOLMAN CNA staff reporter
bpoolman@crestonnews.com
CNA photo by KELSEY HAUGEN
Pictured is the sign at the Casey’s General Store on North Sumner Avenue. A new, 4,200-square-foot, 24-hour Casey’s is scheduled to be built just up the street on the southwest corner at the intersection of North Sumner Avenue and West Townline Street in Creston.
CNA photo by KELSEY HAUGEN
Pictured is the intersection where the new, 4,200-square-foot Casey’s General Store will be built. The new Casey’s will be built on the southwest corner at the intersection of North Sumner Avenue and West Townline Street in Creston.
per said. “We have multiple stores in the (Creston) community, and some are older assets that may not be as efficient to service the community, so we think there’s an opportunity to build a more effi-
cient site in the community. There are better ways to serve the community than having six or seven older stores.” So far, there is no time table for construction, but Walljasper said Casey’s
does have ground under contract. A planning and zoning meeting for the new Casey’s is 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, in City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.
The budget has been set for fiscal year 2016-17 (FY2017) in Union County, with a county tax asking of approximately $11 million, which is about the same amount as the current year. While the tax asking is similar, the actual tax levy is decreasing from $13.35 per $1,000 of valuation to $12.60. “The valuation did go up from last year,” said Union County Auditor Sandy Hysell. “With your valuation going up, and even though we tried to keep your tax levy rates the same, if not lower, that does not guarantee that your taxes are going to go down.” A person’s taxes are also dependent on where he or she lives and tax rates for Creston Community Schools, Southwestern Communi- Hysell ty College, Greater Regional Medical Center, the city of Creston and others. In FY2016, the tax asking was about $30,000 less than FY2017’s approximately $11 million. Of the budget, about 40 percent is dedicated to wages of county employees, such as those in the courthouse and mental health facilities. “County government is not a revenue industry, it’s a service-based industry,” said Union County Board of Supervisors Chairperson Ron Riley. “I think 42 percent, if you look, is very comparable.” Part of that approximate 40 percent includes employee insurance costs, which increased 8 percent. Of that increase, 5 percent will be paid by the county and 3 percent will be paid by the employee. Riley also mentioned the increase in wages of county officials like Union County Sheriff Rick Piel or Hysell is a small portion compared to the overall amount of the budget. Another large portion of the budget is dedicated to secondary road construction projects. The secondary roads budget takes up about 40 percent of the county budget. About $800,000 of that is dedicated to capital projects of secondary roads, and those BUDGET | 2A
Republicans barrel toward Super Tuesday VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Republicans are barreling toward Super Tuesday with another debate in the offing and Donald Trump’s opponents reaching for perhaps their last best chance to knock him off stride for the presidential nomination. Expect a nasty turn, Trump warned, as if the roiling GOP race were anything but that already. The New York billionaire predicted that the relative civility between Marco Rubio and himself would fall away in the frantic grasp for hundreds of convention delegates in the 11 states that hold Republican primaries Tuesday. Even John Kasich, a trailing contender whose calling
card has been a positive campaign, went sharply negative Wednesday in a campaign broadside against Rubio, the Florida senator who is soaking up Republican Rubio establishment support and thereby threatening to starve Kasich’s effort of its remaining oxygen. Trump exercised bragging rights with trademark gusto after Nevada handed him his third straight victory the night before. Relaxed on stage at Virginia’s Regent University, Trump
fielded questions from Christian conservative figure Pat Robertson, ticking off Obama administration executive orders he wants to reverse as president and joking about his recent dustup with the pope. He said earlier he might tone down his contentious rhetoric if he makes it to the White House — or not, since “right now it seems to be working pretty well.” And what of Rubio? “So far he’s been very nice and I think I’ve been very nice to him,” Trump said on NBC’s “Today” show. “We haven’t been in that mode yet but probably it’ll happen.” He meant attack mode. GOP | 2A
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2016
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Nerd night: The Southwestern Dazzlers dance team is joined by faculty and staff members during their performance at halftime of the men’s basketball game. For more on the game, see page 8A.
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Staff Writer Allison Leah Hurt, Wal Shaw, der, Cheyan Sama